Marsh seeks to be released from jail to care for wife, children

Guy Gordon Marsh, in prison again after serving 14 years on a murder conviction that was overturned, was expected today to ask a Carroll judge to free him so he can take care of his wife and children.

"My wife is a mother, and only able to do so much in taking care of the children," Marsh wrote in a June letter to Carroll Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr., who was scheduled to hear Marsh's sentence-reduction request today.

"They all need me, and I need them."

On June 13, Judge Burns sentenced Marsh, 47, of Westminster to three years in prison for violating the three-year probation he was serving since pleading guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl.

The sole term of his probation -- obey all laws -- was broken in March when Judge Burns convicted Marsh of beating his wife, Mary.

Marsh and his wife have been married for 13 years. During a quarrel last year, Marsh is accused of hitting his wife and throwing her against the wall and to the floor of a bathroom in their home near Westminster.

Mrs. Marsh fled with the couple's two children -- 2 and 4 years old -- March 18. Prosecutors said she left because Marsh beat her; Marsh said his mother-in-law persuaded her to leave.

Sources said Mrs. Marsh and the children have returned from Oklahoma City and are living in Maryland.

Marsh gained national attention when he was released from prison in 1987 after serving more than 14 years of a life-plus-10-year sentence.

That sentence stemmed from the June 1971 slaying of Charles R. Erdman, who was shot when he tried to stop a robbery at a Glen Burnie 7-Eleven. The conviction was overturned after a key witness admitted she had lied in her testimony.